HOW TO: Override DRLs on a GA

[Mirage85]

Originally Posted by ancona46

its not a fuse u need to pull its a relay

And to add to that, its the Relay in the fuse box under the hood.

[Driver]

Originally Posted by

[COLOR=Red

03-04 model Grand Am[/color]

No drl
Pull DRL #22 relay (located in the under hood fuse panel)

ALC bypass
1.) Remove the ambient light sensor under the dash defrost grill.

2.) Put a 10ohm resistor in place of ambient light sensor.

Silly question.For the 10 ohm resistor.Is there a wattage rating I should look for?

[armith]

any standard 1/4 watt or 1/2 watt resistor should be fine..

[Driver]

Cool.I found a 10ohm resistor in an old computer monitor.Gonna try it today.

(I hope the green case on the resistor doesn't mean anything)

[armith]

green case? how big is it? I'm sure it will still work but it sounds like a higher power resistor. If it came from a monitor possibly up to 5 watt rating.. I was going to be funny and post a picture of a 25 watt resistor that looks like it has battery terminals on the ends.. But sounds like you got one.

[Driver]

Good news.It worked!

It wasn't big.About 1/2 inch long,and had a rough clay texture to it.

But it didn't go as easily as I thought.The sensor fell into the dash when I twisted it out of the mount.After pulling the insturment panel I was able to retrieve it and feed it back up to the vent.

I call this a 3 Foul Word job.Not hard,but the possibility of a little swearing.

[armith]

Isn't that the requirement of any good mod? I always make sure I have a whole toolbox of explatives handy for any job I do.. You never know when you'll need them.

[PhantomLover007]

Originally Posted by armith

Isn't that the requirement of any good mod? I always make sure I have a whole toolbox of explatives handy for any job I do.. You never know when you'll need them.

I don't have one of those..

I think I'm gonna hint to the wifey that I want one for Christmas this year. I'm gonna tell her that I feel inadequate to do repair work around around the house and on the cars w/o one.

[armith]

I think I'll market it and sell em on Ebay!

[2000GAGT]

wow there is a lot of posts for this! i didnt have time to read thru all of them so sorry if this has already been mentioned.
i have done these mods and everything worked fine but what i was wondering is if anyone knows how to modify the signals to the bcm so the drls stay off but activate the parking lights? thats what i orginally wanted with this mod but to get the parking lights on during the day i have to turn them on which also turns on the dash lights and tail lights. i would like to just put the car into drive during the day and instead of seeing the head lights turn on...just the parking lights kinda like a cadillac, grand prix, firebird

[daxx]

Add me to the list of those who've followed these steps sucessfully. My '00 can now run "lights out" when needed.*

My execution of these mods allowed for an easy reversal. For the ALC mod I didn't cut wires, but used two scotch-loc type connectors to put a jumper across the two pins, with a quick disconnect pair between them. Not only can I re-enable ALC quickly, I can also put a switch in the circuit to enable/disable this at will. Similarly, for the DRL bypass I used quick-disconnects between the wires for easy reversal or the addition of a switch.

* I may tell of my no-brake-lights mod some day... but that may be considered encouraging law breaking.

[mightypan42]

You basically just did. I'm guessing the same process you used to have to enable/disable the ALC...

[AaronGTR]

Kinda odd question but... has anyone who has used these instructions had any problems with any power drain killing their batteries? Can anyone check and see if they have any parasitic power drain or if the DRL relay is on while the car is off? You should be to pull it out and hear it click when you push it in if it's turning on at all.

Reason being, I've had a drain for a long time and finally tracked it down to my DRL relay being on. I have one of the old DRL "kits" that where sold for a while way back when, so it's wired a little differently though and it also called for removing a post from the DRL relay in the instructions. I'm just wondering if it's always had this problem because of the way it was designed, or if something failed in it. If it comes down to it and I can't fix the drain with the kit, I'm going to uninstall it and do it by these directions instead. Just want to make sure I'm not still gonna have a drain, being that my car sits for a week at a time sometimes and I'm tired of leaving it on a charger.

[armith]

I've had drain before but I passed it off as I hadn't run the car in nearly a month and left stuff plugged into the cigarette lighter adapter the whole time.. I will grab a meter and pop the relay when I get home tonight and post what I find.

[GMMike]

Will that 10 ohm resistor trick work on a 99?

[armith]

I believe the resistor is necessary for the 01+.. I just jumpered the wires together on my 99.

Originally Posted by utimike

Will that 10 ohm resistor trick work on a 99?

[GMMike]

The reason I ask is because I believe it would be easier for me to do the resistor trick.

[armith]

if your going to put it where the ALC sensor plugs in you could just put a simple jumper wire in.. even cheaper than a resistor.. Feel free to try it.

[GMMike]

Ok thanks I'll try that.

[SSRacer]

I'll be doing this soon (maybe today) in prep for HIDs. Man this is a long thread, took me a couple of hours to read it since I was taking care of a baby at the same time.

I guess the short story on all this is that we 01 & 02 owners got screwed on simplicity with the DRLs...